Balancing act: Sheriffs, short on funding, met school safety requirements

Funding 'not nearly enough' to handle new security mandates

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. - This school year, new state mandates to add more school resource officers and other safety measures in all of Florida schools have left many law enforcement agencies concerned about staffing because of a lack of state funding.

In Orange County, the Sheriff's Office told News 6 it is still seeking funding to eventually hire 75 full-time school resource officers.

"It was not nearly enough to handle the mandates and recommendations that they sent down," Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said of the funding to add more school resources officers.

The state funding to put officers in all schools didn’t cut it, Gibson said.

"It put a strain on us, and we met that head on and wanted to make sure our most precious resources were our children (and) are protected at all cost," Gibson said.

Gibson said he’s had to hire retired deputies and move deputies around within his department to meet the state’s new school safety mandates. He said he even had to ask the county commission and the school board to chip in.